„Two out of seven return home -
that is the norm. It's far worst in the men's camps.
In Ketschendorf every second dies of dysentery, tuberculosis and exhaustion....”
Efi Hartenstein
For millions of prisoners, captivity brought severe hardship and, for many, death.
For some, the ordeal began on the way to the camps. Thousands died on long marches from starvation, dehydration, frostbite, exhaustion or violence by guards.
Journeys lasting weeks in unheated cattle wagons, often with little or no food, claimed many more lives.
Conditions in the camps were often little better. Prisoners died from malnutrition, disease, forced labour, exposure and mistreatment.
The suffering was not confined to Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Large numbers of German prisoners also died in Western Allied custody, including in the temporary camps along the Rhine, where many endured cold, mud, inadequate shelter, insufficient food and limited medical care.
2,000,000 dead
Number of prisoner-of-war camps in Germany and abroad:
Soviet Union = 2,022
Great Britain = 396
USA = 155 main camps, 760 sub-camps
Germany = 382
France = 207
Italy = 111
Norway = 75
Africa = 72
Belgium = 45
Netherlands = 20
Denmark = 19
Austria = 19
Greece = 11
Luxembourg = 11 and
Cyprus, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Malta = 5
